Apex's Lament

Long Way from Arks

"It went that way!"

Several heavy footsteps dashed through the broken city, the Utahraptors, or just Raptors, beginning to huff as their fatigue started catching up to them. The deaths of two members of their tribe hit them hard, and they went on a hunt to find the beast that killed them.

In fact, their target was ahead of them, so close yet so far. Whatever it was, it was fast, matching the pace of their mounts yet never seeming to get faster.

The man on the lead Raptor growled in frustration, despising the fact that something was able to outrun Raptors for this long, a feat not many animals could achieve in this derelict and ruined city. He reached into his implant, pulling out a concoction their tribe was known for making: Stamin-ups, as they called it.

He leaned down and held it in his Raptor's face, the creature's eyes going to it and licking up the drugged food he had made specifically for it. Not a few seconds passed before his Raptor twitched and screeched in what seemed to be excitement, and it started pulling ahead of it's fellows.

The thing turned a corner, it's long, alien tail swaying behind it before it dipped out of sight. "Come on Boris! Get that son of a bitch!"

His Raptor screeched and sprinted past the corner, bringing him much closer to the thing they were chasing. Whatever it was, it was very...human, in shape, but that wouldn't stop him.

He held his Spear high, pointing forward to aim himself before yelling and launching the spear at it. He watch it hold true to it's flight path, and soon, it hit the thing in the back and...failed to penetrate.

"What?!"

He definitely caught it's attention, as it's head whipped back, showing long black hair cascading down it's head, and two bright glowing white eyes, no pupils in sight, only the glowing light from the sockets to be seen. The sight was terrifying and extremely unnerving, so much so, he didn't notice the tail whipping towards him until it was far to late.

With a crack against his steel armor, he flew from his Raptor's back, the animal still charging at the figure with it's clawed raised and mouth agape. The thing's claws were sharper though, and it quickly caught the Raptor's neck, tearing it clean out while throwing it to the ground with it's momentum.

"Boris!"

The creature finally looked straight at him, the light piercing between the buildings revealing it's features to him fully. It was something he never saw before...yet at the same time, the thing he was most familiar with.

It looked Human, but it was still something beyond anything they saw before, something unnatural. "What...what the hell are you?"

It's eyes narrowed, and it bent down, leaping up an immense height and grabbing onto the plants that crept around one of the many skyscrapers in Sanctuary. It crawled up them with terrifying speed, vanishing out of sight and around one side before the rest of his tribe caught up.

"Boss! What happened to Boris?!"

"...It ripped his throat out, and it got me hard with it's tail." He put a hand to his chest, the metal dented inwards pretty sharply. It was only now he realized how short his breaths were, and he slowly stood up and leaned on one of the other Raptors. "Okay...someone help me out of this thing...it's a hard to breathe."

"Where did it go?" The one who owned the Raptor he was leaning on stepped off, starting to help him out of the dented armor.

"Up. It climbed away...bastard can jump real high."

His eyes went up to the building it vanished around, even as the metal chest piece fell off his torso, he didn't move and kept his gaze upwards. 'What the hell was that thing? It looks so Human, but at the same time...'